Analysis of cultural differences between Croatia, Brazil, Germany and Serbia

Abstract

In the context of globalisation process and the growth of economical interdependence between countries, national culture is becoming more and more important. The article presents comparative analysis of national cultures. Empirical research was conducted during 2012 in Croatia, Brazil, Germany, Serbia and Spain while results for Spain were used for standardisation purposes. Estimated positions on the dimensions of national cultures (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity and long versus short-term orientation) were done by using a narrow-sample strategy. The ranking of the countries from Hofstede's original research was confirmed in all dimensions with the exception of uncertainty avoidance for Croatia and Brazil. The most significant change is the move from collectivism towards individualism in Brazil, Croatia and Serbia which confirms Hofstede's assumption about a cultural change towards individualism as a consequence of global economic growth.

Employees’ individual values as a source of human capital

“…Recent research efforts in the region include investigation of values according to Hosftede (Podrug, Filipović, & Stančić, 2014), as well as an investigation of cultural values according to Schwartz, with a distinction between countries (Gashi, Grubić-Nešić, Mitrović, Lajović, & Ćosić, 2013) and without a distinction between countries, focusing on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (Milisavljević et al, 2013) or the innovativeness of students (Arsenijević, Bulatović, & Bulatović, 2012). However, there were no research efforts at the regional level focusing on individual values of employees, distinguished by countries in the region and by employees in companies/local governments in the region.…”

“…This research, thus, tries to go beyond simple 'scanning' the situation, comparison of samples or confirming the theories and 'convergence hypothesis' which 'implies that management philosophies and practices around the world are becoming more and more alike' (Podrug et al, 2014). The research offers a perspective on how the values can be used next, to screen the potentials of workforce, to increase managers' awareness of differences and commonalities of employees, and to show how the values can contribute to better understanding and improving the human capital of an organisation.…”

Students' Career Preferences: Intercultural Study of Croatian and German Students

“…Many of the elements of these theories can be ascribed to cultural and socio-economic influences. Podrug, Filipović and Stančić (2014) have conducted a research of organizational culture differences in four countries, including Croatia and Germany using Hofstede's model (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). In a survey conducted with an international sample of IBM employees Hofstede had asked the participants to rate the importance of fourteen work goals towards an "imaginary ideal job" (Dorfman & Howell, 1988).…”

Theoretical Reflections on the Possible Causes of Egalitarian Syndrome Inertia

“…Također, pojedina istraživanja koja problematiziraju neke od komponenata nacionalne kulture iz perspektive Hofstedeova modela, u slučaju Hrvatske naglašavaju problem zastupljenosti pojedinih vrijednosti (npr., individualizam, hijerarhijska distanca, izbjegavanje nesigurnosti) koje se obično povezuju s nacionalnom konkurentnošću i razvojnom učinkovitošću (usp. Podrug, Filipović i Stančić, 2014;Šimić Banović i Podrug, 2016).…”